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Monday, November 21, 2011

Winter Break

Many signs in the city remind us that winter has arrived earlier than usual this year. Grouse and Cypress have beautiful snow caps. Big-O-Tire on W. Broadway is busy as drivers desperately winterize their vehicles. Robert is staying home today coping with a cold after a soccer game this weekend at snow-covered UBC in sub-zero temperature. Noah fired an email last week advertising new running apparel available in Alma RR and suitable for cold weather conditions. I may need a new pair of warm running gloves myself.

On one of those cold and rainy days last week, long awaited subscription of Runners World finally arrived. To my delight one of the featured articles discussed a necessity to take a winter break to rest and get ready for a new running season next year. After a very intensive training for races in Eugene in May and New York in November, I felt that my body needed well-deserved rest. As part of my training I ran close to 1,650 km from December to May and 1,850 km from June to November, enough to cover a distance from Vancouver to Chicago. Yes, it's time to take a break and follow some of the recommendations from RW:

Make time to cross-train: spin cycling, swimming, yoga, cross-country skiing, or weight training for the first two weeks of rest

No long-runs: run no more than 30 to 40 minutes at a time and reduce your mileage to 25% of your regular weekly mileage for the next two weeks

Reduce your weekly mileage to 50% for the next one or two weeks, and to 75% for the final week of rest

Eliminate speed work. However, run up to 5 short intervals of 3 minutes each at a pace that feels moderately hard twice a week to keep your legs and lungs strong

Time off in December is also an excellent opportunity for me to catch up on reading or watching a movie, preferably about running J

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About Me

Running on Sunday morning has been a part of my weekly routine since 1997 when two of my friends and I went for a run (walk) around the Stanley Park in Vancouver on a cold, rainy day in October. Came home exhausted, soaked, starving, but somewhat happy. I was hooked. My first two full-marathons in 2003 and 2005 didn't go well. I have followed a more rigorous training program since and did much better finishing Vancouver and Portland in 2009, Boston and Chicago in 2010, Eugene and New York in 2011, Berlin in 2012, Ottawa and Toronto in 2013, Ottawa and Washington in 2014. My favorite run is a 5K "commute-to-work" run along the canal here in Ottawa . Hope some of my posts on this blog will help other runners stay injury free, train better and run faster.
Run Strong!
Jacek Gorwa, RPB Editor